Educate to Grow NPC
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Mission Statement
Our vision: Educate to Grow aims to promote and enable prospective farmers to have access to online agricultural learning opportunities offered by AGRICOLLEGES International (ACI). Our mission: Our mission is to support prospective students to further their education and skills development in Agri-related areas. Ultimately, we contribute to economic development and sustainable food supply in Africa and beyond. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: Educate to Grow is an entirely private sector initiative falling under the PPGI (Private/Public and Government Sector) working with private enterprises and government to achieve sustainable goals. In March 2017, Agricolleges international (ACI) established Educate to Grow NPC as a bursary, scholarship and social upliftment vehicle working towards a prosperous, equitable and just society. It is a South African non-profit company, focusing on sustainably educating and growing the potential of the unemployed youth and vulnerable women in rural and urban South Africa. Since its inception, Educate to Grow (ETG) has funded and fully paid for the agriculture studies of numerous students through ACI, as educational service provider of choice. A breakdown of the direct beneficiaries of our organization, including gender, age, and race. (For example: Black women ages 18-24= 60%): Gender- 70% female Age: 18-35 Race: 80 % black The community served by our organization and the need for our organization to serve that community: South Africa’s agriculture industry consists of a combination of well-developed commercial farms and numerous smaller scale rural and communal farms, located largely in former homeland areas and informal settlements. Agriculture contributes a relatively small share of the country’s total GDP, but it is important in providing employment and earning foreign exchange through exported produce. The lack of quality education and dysfunctional schools in disadvantaged communities, unemployment, poverty, and crime are everyday realities in South Africa. Many of these issues play out at farm level. Addressing them and meeting the needs of people are essential to securing a sustainable farming future and helping to achieve government’s “National Development Plan” of creating close to one million jobs in agriculture by 2030. “Overall, the up skilling of the agricultural labor force to align with technological advancement, increasing investment, changing market needs, research and development, and financial support to developing farmers, are key to improving the prospects of the sector.” The programs our organization currently offers: ETG strives to develop a sustainable system that can financially support highly motivated and ambitious students from disadvantaged backgrounds, enabling them to obtain reputable agricultural qualifications. Through an integrated student support system, including regular one-on-one contact, career planning, life skills and coaching, the pass rate of the ETG bursary students is currently 90% and rising. The objectives of Educate to Grow are: - to provide the unemployed youth and aspiring farmers with access to quality, affordable learning opportunities - to help vulnerable women in local communities through social upliftment projects in the field of agriculture - to contribute towards removing barriers to agricultural education and training - to help students learn life skills that will make them more employable; and - to develop agripreneurs who can use their acquired knowledge to start their own Agri-enterprises. Impact on the rural society: Many success stories are available as to how our platform, and bursaries has changed the lives of our students. Over 90% of our alumni has successfully found employment! AGRICOLLEGES Plant Production bursary student, Mpilo Ndimande, is building a career for himself. Using his own back yard, Mpilo teamed up with a group of friends to create a vegetable patch and plant spinach and cabbage. The vegetables they grow are sold alongside the road, and an agreement to supply the local Spar with spinach has been secured. “We want to provide fresh, healthy food as well as farming skills for needy communities and local schools,” says Mpilo, who aims to show the youth and those who are unemployed that there are many achievable opportunities in agriculture. The team aims to grow their business to include a wider range of vegetables and is considering the viability of using hydroponic farming. Mpilo has set his sights on much bigger things and has found a 117-hectare tract of land in Newcastle (Kwazulu Natal) to develop. Water shortages are a challenge, but Mpilo is determined to find solutions to make it work. “We developed many advantageous skills during our first project, and the next phase will be even more productive.”
About This Cause
Our program curriculum and strategy are culturally responsive and relevant specific to women and the youth of color. A future female farmer course is under construction in collaboration with the YOUTH BRIDGE TRUST whereby young African women are targeted to skill and up skill themselves in Agribusiness and related fields to access the market and address the unemployment rate in South Africa. . Our recruitment targets for all the courses we support, are aimed at 80% female farmers, and youth of color from rural areas in South Africa and Africa. Our social media recruitment program and even the way we market our courses is geared to make agriculture cool- a vibrant profession that young people, and especially young woman, can associate with. We oppose the entrenched ideas that agriculture is about existence farming, toiling in the sun, and a repetitive day-by-day existence. We introduce woman and the youth to the full spectrum of agriculture as a multifaceted industry where one can find a niche according to one's ability and preference. We follow a program with our alumni where we share their success stories, photos, and videos, and involve them in agri-business at large. Where possible, we introduce our alumni to farmers, and our partners in the industry, where there are vacancies. Partnerships: 1- AGRICOLLEGES international(PTY)LTD Our top outcomes and achievements: • ACI has over 1,700 alumni from 40 countries. • 4 x AgriSETA NQF4 1-year National Certificates with 21 x short course offerings. (25 more under development.) • 90%+ pass rate and 90%+ post studies employment. • Awarded Best global Agricultural eLearning Platform by MEA Markets in 2021. • Awarded Best global Agricultural Education Startup by MEA Markets in 2021. • Named one of 30 Most Inspiring Digital Innovations (MIDI’s) of 2020 by Dutch NGO Partos. • Advanced to the semi-finals of German-led initiative ‘The Future’s Project’. • The Global EdTech Startup Awards in 2020 • Best Global Agricultural Education Provider 2022- Awarded by Corporate Vision. • We have shown over 100% growth year-on-year Development Goals. • Mea Markets- African Excellence Awards: AGRICOLLEGES international BEST GLOBAL AGRICULTURAL eLearning Platform 2021 (11 August 2021) Introduction to AGRICOLLEGES international “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” - Nelson Mandela. “AGRICOLLEGES international (ACI) is a modern, cloud-based e-learning institution, using world-class technology as a platform to address the agricultural education gap in Africa and beyond. By providing students with affordable, accessible, and industry-relevant education and training in the fields of agriculture and related Agri industries, we aim to help address food security and unemployment issues in South Africa and the rest of Africa. We are committed to finding training solutions on our platform suitable for country-specific needs. ACI’s unique offering provides access to information in an online, blended, and shared learning environment, available from anywhere at any time. Courses are offered at a quarter to a fifth of the cost of traditional bricks and mortar tertiary education institutions. In South Africa, many existing bricks-and-mortar agricultural colleges, as well as TVET colleges around the country, are struggling to meet the increased demand for quality accredited education. The ACI approach to agricultural learning is geared to enable a significant improvement in results and, ultimately, greater skills being deployed into the agricultural sector. All that is required to study online is a smart device with access to the internet, as well as basic English and mathematics literacy. Online learning has become even more relevant recently due to the Covid-19 pandemic. At this point in time, ACI offers 16 short courses in Agriculture, as well as 2 accredited one-year NQF Level 4 National Certificate courses. ACI is accredited with AgriSETA and are currently investigating accreditation with other SETAs. They have also submitted their application for registration and accreditation with the Council of Higher Education and the Department of Higher Education and Training. This is expected to come through in the next few months, after which they will immediately roll out their Higher Certificate in General Agriculture at NQF5, to be followed by NQF6. They are continuously identifying new courses that will add value to their offering and several courses are currently under development. All new course development is done in conjunction with industry bodies and with buy-in from industry. Their link and reach to countries in Africa has, to a certain degree, already been established. AGRICOLLEGES international is presently working in 6 continents and 31 countries, of which 14 in Africa. ACI- Website: https://www.agricolleges.org 2 MOTHERLAND: (Participatory impact venture development). We cannot afford any longer to separate the world into different states of development. Our contribution to change the current trajectory is MOTHERLAND. We believe that enabling communities to transition into self-sufficiency is a crucial element to become prospering in a regenerative and resilient way. We also believe in the imagination, problems solving capabilities, and the aim for scalable solutions of entrepreneurs. We started a series of online conferences in March 2020 together with +50 entrepreneurs from all over Africa and our initial question was: "Which challenges are worth solving using technology to impact the lives of potentially a Billion people?" We ran a survey (n=53) to validate our short list of challenges in the food and agriculture space. As a result, we decided to focus on the post-harvest value chain. Our research of activities in this space has shown that hundreds of small and often local startup’s and initiatives are trying to tackle this market failure. We believe we must empower local startup’s and initiatives by making technology, experiences, and best practices accessible to scale all these efforts decentrally. We are currently building up a database of 500 such initiatives in Africa. 3 YOUTH BRIDGE TRUST (YBT): YBT is a Grant making entity creating opportunities for young people to be successful in the workplace, develop livelihood skills, and further their education through partnerships and collaborations. Goals: Short-Term Identify all the possible Agricolleges skills programmes that YBT can utilize. Identify Future farming content development for Aquaponics, Hydroponics, Vertical farming, and Urban farming. Identify needs of women and youth. Avail practical training resources to the partnership i.e., land, equipment, classrooms, and accommodation through practical’s destinations partners. Offer practical training modules. Introduce Educate To Grow NPC (ETG) to potential donors. Mutual endorsement. Medium-Term Focus on women & youth development training opportunities. Investigate possibilities to host YBT branded course material on the Agricolleges platform; to include costing and planning. Investigate possible COVID-19 course development. Bridge the needs of the youth, woman, and the lack of funding . Long-Term Assist in changing perceptions of the youth about food production and Agriculture- "make Agriculture cool again". 4 Voices UNITE/In on Africa: (This movement inspires the youth, and woman to make their voices heard.) In February 2021, the Voices Unite campaign kicked off with the aim of bringing together and amplifying the voices of tomorrow’s leaders. The ground-breaking student engagement platform is an initiative from “In on Africa (IOA)”, encouraging 18- to 34-year-olds, to share their views and perceptions on key issues through a national digital survey. The platform now, has over 7100 registered youths and more than 9700 surveys have been completed. The survey explores various issues, such as the state of education, funding, job readiness, skills development, and youth unemployment. Surveys completed shows that: - 80% of respondents are registered students. - 44% don’t think that high school adequately prepared them for post-school education. - 40% have participated in a skills development programme. Our program- (A holistic overview) : 1.COMPREHENSIVE SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME We holistically invest in our student's academic wellness, life-skills, mentorship, and leadership journeys, ensuring that through the time they are with us, they are given every opportunity to reach their full potential as future leaders. 2.SUPPORT OFFERED TO EDUCATE TO GROW BURSARY AND SCHOLARSHIP STUDENTS Through an integrated student support system, we offer: Personality assessment – self-knowledge Networking opportunities with other students and industry role players Problem-solving skills Financial skills for future planning Presentation and communication skills training Stress and time management Career guidance; and Individual coaching. 3.APPLICATION FOR EDUCATE TO GROW BURSARY SUPPORT PROFILE OF CURRENT EDUCATE TO GROW BURSARY AND SCHOLARSHIP STUDENTS- (Focus on the youth and woman). From previously disadvantaged communities Lower-income households Single parent/grandparent-headed households with lower education status Most households depending on Social grants Few have any family members with tertiary education qualification; and Living in areas with some of the country’s most severe social and environmental issues. Evaluation: At this point in time, especially in South Africa, due to social barriers such as disadvantage communities, poverty, and the additional constraints of COVID-19, the supply (students in need of bursaries and sponsorships) exceeds the demand (bursaries available)